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‘Dr. Phil’ Wins Sweeps for First Time, While Another Syndicated Show Keeps Up One of the Longest Winning Streaks in TV History

Dec 5, 2012  •  Post A Comment

The top-rated talk show in November sweeps is “Dr. Phil,” which won the period with a 3.2 rating — even with last year’s number, but the first time in the show’s 11-year history that it has won a sweeps period.

The show averaged 4.3 million viewers, based on Nielsen figures, beating its closest competition by better than 800,000 viewers, or 23%. In the important demo of women 25-54, “Phil” grew 6% from last year to win the talk category with a 1.9 average rating.

Other strong performers included second-place “Live with Kelly & Michael,” which averaged a 2.7 for sweeps — down 18% from last November — with 3.5 million viewers on average; third-place “Ellen” (up 4% to a 2.6; 3.5 million viewers — and up 13% to a 1.8 average in women 25-54); and a fourth-place tie between “Maury” (2.4 average, even with last year; 3.2 million viewers) and “Dr. Oz” (2.4 average, down 14%; 3.2 million viewers).

Newcomer “Katie” placed sixth overall with a 1.9 rating and 2.5 million viewers. The show was down 5% from its September premiere. Next among new talk show entries was “Steve Harvey,” which was up 8% from its September premiere (1.3 average; 1.8 million viewers).

“Entertainment Tonight” kept up one of the most enduring streaks in television, coming in as the top-rated syndie magazine for the 89th sweeps period in a row, going back to July 1990. The show averaged a 3.9 rating with 5.5 million viewers.

Leading all first-run syndicated shows was “Judge Judy” (7.2 average, steady; 10.0 million viewers), which topped its closest court show rival by almost 5 full rating points.

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